Old Regime and the Revolution

by Alexis de Tocqueville

28 chapters7h 14mEnglish1856

About this book

A calm, philosophical inquiry into the causes of the French Revolution, and the working of the Old Regime. In this work, M. de Tocqueville has daguerreotyped French political society under the old monarchy; shown us where the real power lay, and how it affected individual Frenchmen in the daily avocations of life; what was the real condition of the nobility, of the clergy, of the middle classes, of the "people", of the peasantry; wherein France differed from all other countries in Europe; why a Revolution was inevitable. The information derived under these various heads, it may safely be said, is now first printed. It has been obtained, as M. de Tocqueville informs us, mainly from the manuscript records of the old intendants' offices and the Council of State. Of the labor devoted to the task, an idea may be formed from the author's statement, that more than one of the thirty odd chapters contained in the volume, alone cost him a year's researches."I trust," says M. de Tocqueville in his Preface, "that I have written this work without prejudice; but I can not say I have written without feeling. It would be scarcely proper for a Frenchman to be calm when he speaks of his country, and thinks of the times in which we live. I acknowledge, therefore, that in studying the society of the Old Regime in all its details, I have never lost sight of the society of our own day."The work abounds with allusions to the Empire and the Emperor. It need hardly be added, that these allusions are not eulogistic of the powers that be. Napoleon has seldom been assailed with more pungent satire or more cogent logic. - Summary by Harper & Brothers, Publishers

Chapters (28)

1Preface

1076

2Contradictory Opinions formed upon the Revolution when it broke out

478

3That the fundamental and final Object of the Revolution was not, as some have supposed, to destroy religious and to weaken political Authority

506

4That the French Revolution, though political, pursued the same Course as a religious Revolution, and why

406

5How the same Institutions had been established over nearly all Europe, and were every where falling to pieces

528

6What did the French Revolution really achieve?

334

7Why the feudal Rights were more odious to the People in France than any where else

1242

8That we owe “Administrative Centralization,” not to the Revolution or the Empire, as some say, but to the old Regime

980

9That what is now called “the Guardianship of the State” (Tutelle Administrative) was an Institution of the old Regime

1063

10That administrative Tribunals (la Justice Administrative) and official Irresponsibility (Garantie des Functionnaires) were Institutions of the old Regime

535

11How Centralization crept in among the old Authorities, and supplanted without destroying them

380

12Of official Manners and Customs under the old Regime

1070

13How the Capital of France had acquired more Preponderance over the Provinces, and usurped more Control over the Nation, than any other Capital in Europe

525

14That Frenchmen had grown more like each other than any other People

478

15That these Men, who were so alike, were more divided than they had ever been into petty Groups, each independent of and indifferent to the others

1612

16How the Destruction of political Liberty and Class Divisions were the Causes of all the Diseases of which the old Regime died

1240

17Of the kind of Liberty enjoyed under the old Regime, and of its Influence upon the Revolution

1464

18How the Condition of the French Peasantry was worse in some respects in the Eighteenth Century than it had been in the Thirteenth, notwithstanding the Progress of Civilization

1868

19How, toward the middle of the Eighteenth Century, literary Men became the leading Politicians of the Country, and of the Effects thereof

1109

20How Irreligion became a general ruling Passion among Frenchmen in the Eighteenth Century, and of the Influence it exercised over the Character of the Revolution

949

21How the French sought Reforms before Liberties

1284

22That the Reign of Louis XVI. was the most prosperous Era of the old Monarchy, and how that Prosperity really hastened the Revolution

1119

23How Attempts to relieve the People provoked Rebellion

855

24Of certain Practices by means of which the Government completed the revolutionary Education of the People

535

25How great administrative Changes had preceded the political Revolution, and of the Consequences thereof

1088

26How the Revolution sprang spontaneously out of the preceding Facts

850

27Appendix

1196

28Preface (Version 2)

1289

Old Regime and the Revolution

About this book

Chapters (28)

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